http://levenspiel.com/octave/dinosaurs.htm

That's some interesting theorizing. If atmospheric pressure today is a fraction of what it once was, I wonder how much that would affect the validity of ice core data?

Still trying to discredit that data for the sake of your global warming argument, eh Sanchek? ;) The guy sounds like a hoot, but I'd be a bit more prone to buy his assertion (the word you are looking for is 'hypothesis' by the way) if it weren't for the disclaimer at the end of his own paper:

So here I present this "ridiculous" idea about our ancient atmosphere on internet. I think I have tried journals long enough to be rewarded with reviews such as "this is a waste of paper."

That's not to say it *couldn't* be the case (after all, the Earth's magnetic field has shifted several times over geological time, for example), but our planet's mass-related ability to hold its atmosphere is another matter, and something that should be able to be measured in the modern age and assessed for trends. He reminds me of one of my biology professors in college who had a wonderfully creative and child-like nature even into his 80's - I'm a bit surprised that he didn't talk to the paleontologists long enough to ask them what they thought of the Chixlub asteroid impact hypothesis as a possible cause for all that missing atmosphere?

By the way, his statement that his data includes examples of 'all fliers' is disingenuous. His list includes no *bats*, the very creatures which have a wing structure and musculature (based on what we know from fossil evidence) most similar to that of the creatures he references, or any other 'flying' (gliding) mammals. I wonder why that is so? :)

Regards,
Nydia

Also, on the ice core thing, the last known dinosaurs passed on 65 million years or so ago, while ice core data only goes back several hundred thousand years (the oldest ever retrieved being approximately 750,000 years old, or about the time to our last known magnetic field reversal:
(http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn4121-oldest-ever-ice-core-promises-climate-revelations.html)

- you're talking two orders of magnitude of time difference there. It seems highly unlikely that the Earth's atmospheric pressure has declined significantly within the past *million* (single) years, even given this fellow's hypothesis, which in itself would have required either a) a traumatic event with associated mass extinctions or b) *very* long spans of time to effect said change.

Regards,
Nydia

Still trying to discredit that data for the sake of your global warming argument, eh Sanchek? ;)
Why would I want to discredit data that shows CO2 increasing after temperature change? I think climate change is an obvious given. I just think the silly CO2 alarmists are a fraud, at best.

Anyway, I don't think his stuff was politically motivated. The effect of atmospheric pressure on CO2 concentrations in ice was just a question I had after reading it. I don't even know if/how/why it would significantly skew the core data, hence the question instead of a statement.

Most definately a fraud. Gore will cause more damage in the long run than good when folks abandon this push for Green after they find out his drama was based on shakey rushed too science.

Buy stock in GE.

Some of the studies I have seen lately well on National Geo. and Hdnet had to do with the higher levels of o2 in the atmosphere allowing the dinosours to thrive and when it lowered to co2 and methane they died off.

Dino farts for the win, but they also conjectured the world was farther away from the sun for a period of time and had been frozen over a couple of times during the cycle.